Grid Computing is an emerging infrastructure
that aims at providing a mechanism for sharing and coordinating the
use of diverse computing resources. The word ‘Grid’ is often used as
an analogy with the electric power grid, which provides pervasive
access to electricity.

As Grid Computing makes long strides and
impacts many organizations in the IT world with its utility-like
access to computational resources, a question remains in everyone’s
mind if Grid Computing can become similar to the Electric Power Grid
of the 20th century. While the state of Grid Computing is
still in its infancy, there are definite signs of similarities
according to Rajkumar Buyya and Madhu Chetty [1.2], the researchers
from University of Melbourne, Australia.

As seen in Table 2.1, there many apparent
similarities in the electric power grid infrastructure and
computational grid structure. However, the computational grid is
more varied and more complex than electric grid. The existence of
hardware components and user specific software components and
applications make all the difference. Nevertheless, the comparison
is worth noting.